ikle inkle

Now people who know me will be aware of my fondness for coffee shops, somewhere to knit/spin/whatever and watch the world go by. This week it was somewhere to doodle on squared paper...

 much to the amusement of the regular staff who always take an interest in what the spinning lady is up to! I was trying to come up with a new pattern to use on the inkle loom but unfortunately I don't like the bit inside the diamonds.

I don't like the dashes that travel the centre of the weaving so tomorrow evening I will try and replace them with something else and see how that works out.

Bobbin lace #1

Hi
I hadn't realised just how rusty I was at the whole making lace thing. Firstly, the lace threads that I had chosen were far too thick ( there was no label so I took a gamble on it) since I reach the fan section the threads were all crowded and lying almost on top of each other.

So back to the drawing board or rather the thread box.

So I found this which was an unlabelled skein of thread in a bag with a full 50gm skein of Retors D'Alsace DMC No 80, all 4930  yards of it. I have no idea how old these thread are or whether they are still usable even just for sampling patterns. The thickness looks a little like brok 120 ish? My plan is to see whether it can survive being wound off on my swift onto my ancient ball winder without breaking!

In the end it broke a couple of times when the thread got stuck and I was too engrossed in what was in the computer at the time so I'm going to risk it for samples but prob not for a special project.

 The thread is may be too thin for the pattern,my working of it is very uneven, my placing of the pins inaccurate so more practise needed.

Never mind, onto the next pattern, not sure if it will be from this book or a quick torchon bookmark just to get the memory back in the fingers.

and I rediscovered a bobbin that is very appropriate since this is the museum I now spin at, I bought this at a lace exhibition there in 2006

back to bobbin lace basics

I said in a previous post that I wanted to play with bobbin lace again but felt that I needed to master the basics or at least remind myself of the basics.So I picked a book off the shelf...........

I've just realised that this book dates back to 1985!!! dread to think how old some of my other lace books are as I have a habit of buying them 2nd hand whenever I see one I haven't got. There are more lace patterns sat on the shelf than I will ever use in my lifetime!

I found some thread, I have quite a stash of lace threads from people who have given up or have relatives that used to make lace.

and a few bobbins from when I first started lace making. The problem is that I have forgotten little bits and techniques over the last few years as I have been concentrating on other things. Still here we go.....see you all on the other side of lesson one!!

Woolly Wednesday

And a Happy New Year to one and all.

Any woolly resolutions??  I have thought about trying to keep a record of how much I spin and how much fibre I buy !! have now realised just how scary that may be  :-)

Anyway, first up on my round up of things woolly since last time is this. Yes, I finished the fingerless mitts for my friend just before the really cold weather set in before Christmas.

I  bought about 120gm of sari waste from a friend at guild ( unwanted and unloved)

So I now have some sari yarn to play with on my small loom at some point.

The last of the Jacob singles..........this means I have spun my first whole fleece ! whoo whoo!! I've also managed a skein of Shetland and skein of what may be the last of the polworth, not sure until I do a stock take of my stash.

On the needles.....not a lot, on the wheel at the moment it is back to the oxford fleece and I'm on bobbin 3 since Christmas due to having treated myself to some wool combs two weeks ago and being desperate to play with them.

 After a major hunt around my workroom I've managed to most of my bobbins and empty off any scraps of spinning so I'm now all set for the next month.

 I hope you all had a great Christmas and have a wonderful New Year xx

crafty resolutions

So, 1st Jan, what do I want to do this year? Leaving aside all the lose weight,get fit type of thing, I want to vary what I do craft-wise.

 I really want to revisit Bobbin Lace although I think I may have to go back to basics with it, maybe pick a book off the shelf and work back through the first few lessons.

The inkle looms need some use, so I plan to work through the inkle weavers handbook some more then try designing my own bands.

The strange thing is that I have an urge to learn to play a musical instrument, in the previous post you may have read that we have swapped an electric guitar for something else, well the something else will probably not arrive until Easter time so I'll let you guess what it may be :-)